The company was founded in 1975 by Michael Lenet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] The name was derived from Lenet’s handle, or nickname; he called himself the "Silver Shadow." [citation needed] Lenet began the operation as an informal traffic reporting service that was provided over citizens' band radio. Soon after, Lenet began providing traffic information to various radio stations in Philadelphia. [citation needed]
Among the original air staff in New York were Donna Fiducia, Fred Feldman, George W. Forman, Susan Murphy, Joe Nolan and Bernie Wagenblast. Murphy also served as program director, and Fred Feldman was the general manager. Joe Biermann was the operations manager.[2]
The company grew and expanded into other markets, beginning in 1978 with Chicago, Illinois. New York City followed in December, 1979. [citation needed] This expansion continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s. During that time the company began offering news, weather, and sports services to its affiliates. The primary business philosophy was to provide broadcast services at little or no cost to their affiliates. The majority of the revenue was brought in through sponsorship deals; direct sponsoring of the traffic reports themselves did this. [citation needed] Chicago on-air personalities included John "Radio" Russell Ghrist.
In March 1996 Shadow Broadcast Services was partially acquired by Westwood One, and then it was fully owned by Westwood One in May 1998.[3] By that time Shadow Broadcast Services had affiliate relations with more than 350 radio and TV stations in 15 major markets.[4]
In March 1999 Shadow Broadcast Services formed what was referred to as a “strategic alliance” with SmartRoute Systems, which was a technology based company that provided traffic information and data for local DOT (Department of Transportation) and broadcast use. This partnership was set up to help Shadow Traffic supply comprehensive and accurate traffic information for their radio and television affiliates.[4] This partnership eventually dissolved when the acquisition of Metro Networks took place by Westwood One, which was announced in June, 1999, and then completed in September of that same year. Westwood One merged their two companies together to form Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Service, commonly abbreviated as Metro/Shadow. SmartRoute Systems was not directly partnered with Shadow Traffic after the acquisition of Metro Networks took place.
However, in June 2000 Westwood One announced its acquisition of SmartRoute Systems.[5] That company was eventually combined under the Westwood One umbrella of subsidiaries, which include Metro/Shadow.
Most of the branch offices of Metro/Shadow have working relationships with the local Department of Transportation (DOT), local and state police, and government agencies to gather and distribute traffic information through their affiliates. Other traffic information is gathered by listening to police/fire/rescue scanners , phone calls, viewing traffic cameras, and visual reports made by reporters in fixed-wing and/or rotary-wing aircraft.
In September 2008 Westwood One announced that they were reducing their Metro/Shadow operations centers from 60 offices to 13 regional hubs.[6][7] Metro/Shadow claimed to have more than 1,800 traffic reporters, with radio and TV affiliates in all of the major US markets.[8]
On April 29, 2011, Westwood One sold Metro Networks to iHeartMedia (then known as Clear Channel Communications) for $119.25 million so it can concentrate on their other properties. Clear Channel combined Metro Networks with its own Total Traffic Networks.[9][10] Metro Networks' traffic service was eventually folded into Total Traffic Networks later that year, with Clear Channel keeping the Total Traffic name for the operation.[11]
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its service included 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels, and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels were identified by Arbitron with the label "XM".
iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., a company founded by Lowry Mays and B. J. "Red" McCombs in 1972, and later taken private by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners through a leveraged buyout in 2008. As a result of this buyout, Clear Channel Communications, Inc., began to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of CC Media Holdings, Inc. On September 16, 2014, CC Media Holdings, Inc. was rebranded iHeartMedia, Inc., and Clear Channel Communications, Inc., became iHeartCommunications, Inc.
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, Mutual was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow. For many years, it was a national broadcaster for Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish football. From the mid-1930s and until the retirement of the network in 1999, Mutual ran a highly respected news service accompanied by a variety of popular commentary shows. Mutual pioneered the nationwide late night call-in talk radio program in the late 1970s, introducing the country to Larry King and later Jim Bohannon.
Westwood One was an American radio network that was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, and was later purchased by the private equity firm, The Gores Group. Due to purchases, mergers and other forms of consolidation in the 1980s and 1990s, at one time or another, it had ownership stakes in or syndication rights to some of the most famous brands in network radio, including CBS, NBC, Mutual, CNN, Fox, and Unistar. The company was one of the largest producers and distributors of radio programming in the United States. It broadcast entertainment, news, weather, sports, talk, and traffic programming to about 7,700 radio stations across the United States. The company was the top provider of local traffic reports in the U.S. through its subsidiaries, Metro Networks, Shadow Broadcast Services, SmartRoute Systems, and Sigalert.com. Westwood One also offers weather services; originally using Accuweather, Westwood switched to The Weather Channel in 2009.
Hearst Television, Inc. is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor of programming in broadcast syndication.
Traffic Message Channel (TMC) is a technology for delivering traffic and travel information to motor vehicle drivers. It is digitally coded using the ALERT C or TPEG protocol into Radio Data System (RDS) carried via conventional FM radio broadcasts. It can also be transmitted on Digital Audio Broadcasting or satellite radio. TMC allows silent delivery of dynamic information suitable for reproduction or display in the user's language without interrupting audio broadcast services. Both public and commercial services are operational in many countries. When data is integrated directly into a navigation system, traffic information can be used in the system's route calculation.
Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which was broken up in 2007; Cumulus owned the portion of the network that was purchased by Citadel Broadcasting that year.
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It is the last of the three original national U.S. radio networks still operating and still owned by its parent company, even though CBS sold its owned and operated radio stations in 2017. The current NBC Radio Network is actually owned by iHeartMedia but licenses use of the NBC name and NBC's TV news reports.
Metro Networks was a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It was a subsidiary of Westwood One until its sale to Clear Channel Communications in 2011. The company operated local and regional news and traffic operations that provided regular reports to affiliates, together with its sister company Shadow Broadcast Services. At the time of the sale to Clear Channel Communications, Metro Networks had approximately 2,300 radio affiliates and 170 television affiliates operating in nearly every major radio and television market of the United States, as well as 700+ websites.
A weather radio is a specialized radio receiver that is designed to receive a public broadcast service, typically from government-owned radio stations, dedicated to broadcasting weather forecasts and reports on a continual basis, with the routine weather reports being interrupted by emergency weather reports whenever needed. Weather radios are typically equipped with a standby alerting function—if the radio is muted or tuned to another band and a severe weather bulletin is transmitted, it can automatically sound an alarm and/or switch to a pre-tuned weather channel for emergency weather information. Weather radio services may also occasionally broadcast non-weather-related emergency information, such as in the event of a natural disaster, a child abduction alert, or a terrorist attack.
KMYT-TV is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside Fox affiliate KOKI-TV. The two stations share studios on East 27th Street and South Memorial Drive in the Audubon neighborhood of southeast Tulsa; KMYT-TV's transmitter is located on South 273rd East Avenue in the western city limits of Coweta.
Traffic.com, also known as Navteq Traffic, Traffic Pulse and Mobility Technologies, was a provider of traffic information via a number of media, including the Internet, cell phones, radio, satellite radio and television, in the United States from 2000 to 2013.
Traffic reporting is the near real-time distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic collisions. The reports help drivers anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Traffic reports, especially in cities, may also report on major delays to mass transit that does not necessarily involve roads. In addition to periodic broadcast reports, traffic information can be transmitted to GPS units, smartphones, and personal computers.
Bernie Wagenblast is a transportation journalist, radio personality and voice-over artist. She is the founder and editor of the Transportation Communications Newsletter. The newsletter originated as a discussion group in June 1998, evolving into its current format shortly thereafter. She also edits The AASHTO Daily Transportation Update, published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and hosts AASHTO's ETAP Podcast and the ITE Talks Transportation podcast for the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it was one of the first two nationwide networks established in the United States. Its major competitors were the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), founded in 1927, and the Mutual Broadcasting System, founded in 1934. In 1942, NBC was required to divest one of its national networks, so it sold NBC Blue, which was soon renamed the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). After this separation, the Red Network continued as the NBC Radio Network.
KMJ is a commercial AM radio station in Fresno, California. It airs right wing news/talk radio format, and simulcasts with sister station KMJ-FM. Owned by Cumulus Media, the studios and offices are located at the Radio City building on Shaw Avenue in North Fresno.
WMAC is a commercial Class B radio station in Macon, Georgia. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a news/talk format. The studios and offices are on Mulberry Street in Macon. It is one of the oldest radio stations in Georgia. WMAC is a primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
Global Traffic Network is a traffic reporting service that provides reports to radio and television stations across Australia, Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom. The company was formed in 2005 by principals from Westwood One and Metro Networks, both of which provide direct traffic and news programming to their affiliate stations in the U.S.
Scott Harris Lenet is an American venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of two venture capital firms: the corporate venture capital firm Touchdown Ventures and the seed stage venture capital firm DFJ Frontier.
Westwood One News was a radio news network launched on January 1, 2015, and operated by Westwood One through its parent company Cumulus Media. Using audio from CNN reports and correspondents, and anchored by Cumulus employees, it provided radio stations with hourly newscasts as well as voiced reports that could be individually used by member stations. It was discontinued on August 30, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
